“One wrote to the king of Portugal that Affonso ‘knows better than us the prophets, the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ…He speaks so well and with such assurance that it always seems to me that the Holy Spirit speaks through his mouth. My Lord, he does nothing but study…’” (12). This is a good quote that sets up the rest of the prologue because it discusses how Affonso, the leader of the Kongo, was very knowledgeable. It is important to be knowledgeable because Affonso needed to know the concepts of trade. The concepts of trade are important to understand because Affonso had to trade with Europe. The trade with Europe consisted of trading Slaves to Europe and Europe trading jewelry, cloth, tools, and more to the Kongo. This trade continued throughout Affonso’s rule in the Kongo, but once he died, the power of the Kongo weakened. Affonso’s rule over the Kongo brought new goods to Africa, but payed the price by trading his people.
My two questions for the introduction/prologue/chapter one are:
Did the Portuguese travelers know that when they landed in Brazil that it was not the Congo?
Was slavery different in Africa from Europe?
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